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A week of reading at home

5 Tips to Support Your Child’s Language and Reading Development Try one activity each day during the week! These are simple exercises that can help strengthen your child’s reading skills, language development, and confidence in using language.

 

Monday

Let your child listen to a story or fiction book.

Whether you read aloud to your child or listen to an audiobook together, this activity helps build your child’s vocabulary and understanding of language.

  • Read or listen together to a short section of a book.
  • Ask your child to tell you three things they remember from what they heard.
  • Share one thing you enjoyed about the story or section.
  • Repeat this process for about 20 minutes.

 

Tuesday

Today it is your child’s turn to read aloud to you.

This activity helps your child practise important reading skills, such as blending letter sounds into words and reading fluently.

  • Choose a book that you already have at home.
  • Let your child read aloud to you for about 10 minutes.
  • Use a timer so your child knows there is a clear end point.

If your child finds reading difficult or feels reluctant, try reading aloud yourself for a short while first to help them get into the story. Then let your child read for 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of reading by you.

 

 

Wednesday

Today’s activity is a word game to help improve reading fluency.

The goal is for your child to recognise words quickly and easily, almost like recognising a picture. Being able to read common words automatically helps your child read more smoothly and with greater confidence.

  • Print the words or copy them by hand if you do not have access to a printer.
  • Write one word on each card or piece of paper.
  • If your child needs support reading the words the first time, go through them together before starting the game.
  • Show your child one word card at a time.
  • Ask your child to read the word aloud. If it feels easy, place the card in one pile. If the word is more difficult, or if both you and your child feel it could be read more easily, place it in a second pile.
  • Go through the “tricky” pile again and sort the words in the same way as before.
  • Continue the activity for about 10 minutes.

If the game feels easy for your child, you can choose 15–20 new words from a book and write them down. Then play the game again in the same way.

♣️Suggested words: the, said, was, are, one, two, who, what, where, come, some, have, like, little, there, their, people, could, would, should.


♦️More suggestions: because, example, different, compare, describe, explain, investigate, result, information, important, first, then, meanwhile, suddenly, before, afterwards, although, also, however, finally.

 

Thursday

Today, challenge each other with the game “Word Chains”!

(This game can be played with more than two people.) This activity helps your child develop vocabulary and practise using language, which supports both speaking and writing skills.

  • Choose a category for your word chain (see suggestions below).
  • Let your child start by saying a word from the chosen category.
  • Your turn is to say a new word in the same category that starts with the last sound or letter of your child’s word.
    (For example, if the category is fruits and your child says “melon,” you could say “nectarine.”)
  • Keep going for as long as you can!
  • Choose a new category and play again. If you like, the winner can choose the next category.

Category ideas:
Fruits, countries, cities, books, meals/foods, sports, animals, TV shows, flowers, computer games, artists, YouTubers.

 

Friday

Today is “Friday Fun”!

This game encourages your child to use their own words to explain familiar words or short phrases.

The activity helps develop your child’s vocabulary and understanding of words and language.

  • Write the suggested words (see list below) on separate slips of paper.
  • Each word should be on its own slip.
  • If your child needs support reading the words the first time, go through them together before starting the game.
  • Place all the word slips in a container or bowl. One person picks a word and reads it.
  • The person who picks the word should explain it using their own words, while the other person tries to guess what the word is.
  • If you would like, you can set a time limit for guessing. 20 seconds is often a good amount of time.
  • If the person guessing gets it right, they keep the word slip. If not, place it back in the container.
  • Take turns reading and explaining the words.
  • Continue until there are no word slips left.

Suggested words for “Friday Fun”:

Train
Bus
Shop
Lamp
Necklace
Blueberries
Sweater
Chair
Banana
Sausage
Horse
School
Play
Sibling
Melon
Candy
Piano
Read
Computer
Swim
Tomato
Ship
Fry/Cook
Tree
Truck
Write
Troll
Prince

Good luck and have fun!

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